Month: May 2021

Image 1 of 10 (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute) Europa Europa is Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, and the smoothest of all the celestial bodies. There are almost no craters, and despite a dense network of cracks and ridges covering this moon, none are higher or deeper than a few hundred meters. This suggests that Europa’s surface is geologically young and possibly floating on a liquid mantle. The Hubble Space Telescope has also spotted plumes of water vapor spewing 124 miles (200 kilometers) into the air from the south pole. This lends…

China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft completed a historic delivery of moon rocks to Earth late last year, but the mission is still continuing with experiments in deep space. In December, the Chang’e 5 orbiter delivered a return capsule to Earth packed with about 4.4 lbs. (2 kilograms) of lunar material — the first such delivery in decades.,  Related: The latest news about China’s space program After the delivery, the orbiter module fired its engines to head for a point in space known as Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1, which is about 932,000…

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a new fleet of Starlink internet satellites into orbit alongside two rideshare satellites Saturday evening (May 15), before sticking a stunning landing at sea. The veteran Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center here in Florida at 6:56 p.m. EDT (2056 GMT), marking the company’s 15th launch of the year. It also marked the eighth flight for this particular Falcon 9. Related: SpaceX’s Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photos Image 1 of 5 A…

A Rocket Lab Electron booster carrying two commercial satellites failed to reach orbit Saturday (May 15) after suffering an anomaly just minutes after liftoff.  The launch failure occurred less than three minutes after a launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula, and just after the Electron’s two stages separated. Two Earth-observing satellites for the company BlackSky, their flight arranged by the firm Spaceflight, were lost. “An issue was experienced during today’s launch, resulting in the loss of the mission. We are deeply sorry to our…

Update for 8:38 a.m. EDT: Rocket Lab’s 20th launch of an Electron booster has failed to reach orbit, leading to the loss of two BlackSky satellites. Read our full story on the failed launch. Rocket Lab will launch two satellites Saturday morning (May 15) and bring a booster down for a controlled ocean splashdown, and you can watch the action live. An Electron booster will lift off from Rocket Lab’s New Zealand launch site Saturday during a two-hour window that opens at 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT; 10:00 p.m. local…

China just successfully landed its first rover on Mars, becoming only the second nation to do so.  The Tianwen-1 mission, China’s first interplanetary endeavor, reached the surface of the Red Planet Friday (May 14) at approximately 7:11 p.m. EDT (2311 GMT), though Chinese space officials have not yet confirmed the exact time and location of touchdown. Tianwen-1 (which translates to “Heavenly Questions”) arrived in Mars’ orbit in February after launching to the Red Planet on a Long March 5 rocket in July 2020.  After circling the Red Planet for more…

The “world’s premier gateway to space” now has a new name. The 45th Space Wing at Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida was redesignated as Space Launch Delta 45 on Tuesday (May 11). The changeover continues the reorganization of Air Force installations to the Space Force since the latter was founded in 2019. “I am proud of the guardians and airmen of today’s 45th Space Wing and the tens of thousands of your predecessors, who for decades have worked tirelessly to earn the wing’s…